“How far have you travelled?“is the starting sentence into any kind of conversation this weekend. It is the kick-off into the new season of ZEIT DEBATTEN series at Greifswald. Flirts, smalltalk - they all start with the "How long did it take you to get here" question. Indeed, the Hanseatic town by the Bodden, a bay at the Baltic Sea, is located in quite a remote area. However, about 65 debaters found their ways to Greifswald. Many of them split their journey - it took them a two-day's travel via Berlin or Hamburg to get to Meck-Pomm. To read more on ...

The tab of ZEIT DEBATTE Greifswald can be found online! Interesting enough: The team of Hanse Debating Union Bremen broke to semis with a result of 15 out of 15 points. And the team from Klartext Halle that later won the final was third of the tab after prelims. ...

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Halle for the first time enters the Top Ten in the VDCH hall of fame, and now draws with Bonn. Munich and Greifswald are victims of Halle’s victory in Greifswald and lose a few places. A new entry on the list is Bremen (Hanse Debating Union, HDU). Jena underscores its position as one of Germany’s top clubs, and Mainz was able to secure a point this last weekend, although this was in debating, not in football. This was an awaited recovery, after Mainz had disappointed during the German Championships in June. The top seated Berlin Debating Union did not win any ...

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Simeon Reusch and Thomas Wach of debating club Klartext Halle won the ZEIT DEBATTE Greifswald 2010. More information will follow soon.

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Hooray and boohoo: Just eight teams out of 24 had the chance to break at the ZEIT DEBATTEN series kick-off that opens the current season of 2010/2011. Here are the teams that compete for the break into finals on Sunday morning at Greifswald by the Baltic Sea. ...

The European Debating League (EDL) was created by the representatives of ten European countries at a meeting in Split, Croatia. Teams from all over Europe are invited to compete at EDL tournaments that will be held in the British Parliamentary Style (BPS). The first official season will start in the academic year 2011/2012. But already in the current academic year 2010/2011 a test season will be run. The countries present via Sykpe or physically were Austria (Rosi Halmi), Bosnia and Herzegovina (Vedran Arapovic), Croatia (Julia Mikic), Germany (Marcus Ewald), Greece (Manos Moschopoulos) Latvia (Robert Bernans), Macedonia (Georgi Velkoski), Serbia (Milan Vignevic), ...

The new ZEIT DEBATTEN series begins! This weekend, speakers and judges from Vienna, Munich, Mainz, Frankfurt and other cities in VDCH-land flock at Greifswald by the Baltic Sea. Language of the tournament, as in the whole series, is German, the ZEIT DEBATTE Greifswald will be held in British Parliamentary Style (BPS). Chief adjudicators are Isabelle Loewe (ESL European Champion 2006), Michael Saliba from Stuttgart, David Lamouroux from Göttingen and Sarah Jaglitz from Greifswald. The ZEIT DEBATTEN series is convened by VDCH in cooperation with the weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT and Deutsche Telekom, supported through VDCH’s media partner ZDF, a German public ...

The boards of both the Association of Debating Societies at Universities (VDCH, Verband der Debattierclubs an Hochschulen) and the German Debating Society for alumni (DDG, Deutsche Debattiergesellschaft) offer their condolences to former federal chancellor Helmut Schmidt over the passing of his wife. Loki Schmidt passed in the night of Oct. 21st at the age of 91. The couple had been married since 1942. Helmut Schmidt is a long-term supporter of German debating, and in 2007 became the patron of the ZEIT-DEBATTEN-series, organized by the VDCH. The VDCH board wrote on the VDCH website: “We wish Helmut Schmidt the energy to overcome ...

Jan Lüken, VDCH president, published the 1st VDCH Newsletter 2010/2011. Der VDCH Newsletter No 1 is now available online (in German).

VDCH, the Association of Debating Societies at Universities, stages the first adjudication workshop of the current season 2010/2011 from 26 to 28 November 2010, the venue will be Wiesbaden by the river Rhine. Participants will be taught adjudication by Marcel Giersdorf (Mainz), Lukas Haffert (Cologne) and Torsten Rössing (Halle). Set on the schedule are OPD, BPS and giving feedback which will be practiced through exercises. Fees for participants are 10 Euros including the workshop, accommodation and meals. In addition, a guided tour through Wiesbaden is offered on Friday night. Saturday comes with a surprise in Mainz, just across the river. Debaters from ...

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The next season of the German debating ZEIT DEBATTEN series is set: the general assembly of VDCH, the Association of Debating Societies at Universities, came together in August and decided upon dates and locations of four ZEIT DEBATTEN tournaments, four regional championships and the German debating championship (DDM) 2011. An overview over the coming season 2010/11 is provided here: ...

Hannes Budelmann, president of Deutsche Debattiergesellschaft (DDG), the German alumni association for debaters, announced the CA team of Masters' Cup 2010. Traditionally, one member each from VDCH and DDG executive boards are the chief adjudicators of Masters' Cup. This year, this will be the recently elected president of VDCH Jan Lüken and Hannes' deputy, DDG vice president Gudrun Lux. Hannes, who once has been co-convenor of Euros 2006 will be chief organiser of the alumni tournament. The Masters’ Cup is the annual tournament which is staged at Eisenach since 2005. The venue for the final is the ballroom at ...

Tim Richter, former president of VDCH (Association of Debating Societies at Universities), had been member of the executive board of the umbrella organization for three years. Of all meetings, it was this year’s general assembly that Tim could not attend – he had to undergo an ad hoc surgery. But of course, Tim kept himself informed while in his sickbed. Monday morning, Achte Minute interviewed him in his hometown Bonn where the ex-president talked about the development of the association, his farewell from VDCH and his debating future. ...

The general assembly of VDCH (the Association of Debating Societies at Universities) elected a new president and his deputies: Jan Lüken, Benedikt Nufer, Marcus Ewald and Esther Reinert constitute the new VDCH executive board. Achte Minute presents a first introduction: ...

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Deutsche Telekom AG is the new national sponsor of the Association of Debating Societies at Universities (VDCH) from August onwards. It thus supports the aims of VDCH both to encourage debating as a sport among young people and to promote the maintenance of the German language and the art of free speech in our society. The VDCH is happy to have gained such a renowned and esteemed company like Telekom as a partner. “Having Telekom as a strong partner by our side we will manage even better to perform a high standard of debating and to embed the conjunct rhetorical examination in ...

Helmut Schmidt took over patronage of the 2010/11 ZEIT DEBATTEN series. Now honorary patron for four years in a row, the former German chancellor and today’s editor of the weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT leads the major German ZEIT DEBATTEN debating series into its tenth year of existence. Convener of the series is the Association of Debating Societies at Universities (VDCH). VDCH president Tim Richter is glad to have Mr Schmidt on board as patron for the next season’s tournament series. “Chancellor Schmidt shows his sincere interest in debate as basis of our understanding of democracy as well as in encouraging young ...

Teresa Peters, VDCH Vice President, published the 11th VDCH Newsletter 2009/2010. The VDCH Newsletter No. 11 is now available online (in German).